The present invention relates generally to a printing machine, preferably (but not exclusively) to a screen printing machine. In particular, the invention relates to a printing machine having a cleaning function.
It is known that in printing machines certain components are frequently in need of cleaning, because printing ink tends to dry on them and foul them. This is true in particular in screen printing machines having rotary printing screens, but the problem is also encountered in all other types of printing machines.
Screen printing machines having rotary printing screens are known from the art, for example the Netherlands patent 125,119, and flat screen printing machines are known inter alia from French patent 1,230,051. These two patents provide an example of the type of cleaning that must be carried out, for example when a machine is to have dried ink removed from it, or when the machine is switched over from one ink color to another. It is then always necessary to remove the printing screen from the machine, clean it of the ink, and reinstall the screen in the machine before the machine can be operated again, for example with a different ink color. It is self-evident that this is time consuming, involving labor for the removal, cleaning and reinstallation of the printing screen, and also involving economic losses due to machine downtime while the screen or other component of the machine is being cleaned.